Chapter 47

Olivia

A couple of weeks passed by after the incident with the two neighbor boys. Not much happened after that, and I felt myself getting accustomed once again to my aunt’s old villa.

Without any visitors or anything that needed to be done, I was comfortably spending my days reading in the fresh air, tending to the house, and enjoying my solitude after having to spend the past ten years practically working nonstop just to make ends meet.

However, I couldn’t help but notice a stark difference in Nathan’s demeanor. Before, he seemed to be getting closer with me, as though warming up to some idea of us being more than friends.

But then, as though he read my mind on the night that the neighbor boys tried to prank us, he suddenly distanced himself.

I figured that a bit of distance between us was for the best. It was better, after all, not to spend too much energy trying to find something in our relationship that just wasn’t there.

We were just friends, and we had a plan set in place that we both agreed upon to not let this fake relationship turn into a real one.

But that didn’t mean that I didn’t notice that Nathan was out of the house almost nonstop. Not only that, but he wasn’t cleaning up after himself.

It was early on a Wednesday morning a couple of weeks later when I was having breakfast in the kitchen, and Nathan came in. I watched, my mouth full of cereal, as he groggily shuffled over to the coffee machine and poured himself a cup.

When he turned back to face me, I had to resist the urge to laugh. His hair was a complete mess, and he had a bit of drool caked on his cheek.

“What?” he asked, noticing the mirth in my eyes. “What is it?”

I shook my head and put another spoonful of cereal in my mouth. “Nothing,” I replied around the mouthful of sweet cereal. “You’ve just got a good case of bed head, that’s all.”

Nathan frowned deeply and leaned over to check his reflection in the stainless steel coffee pot. I watched as he cringed, then hastily ran his hand through his hair and scraped away the caked on drool from the side of his cheek.

When he turned back to look at me, his face was red. “Better?” he asked, sounding a little annoyed.

“There’s no shame in it, Nathan,” I said with a laugh. “I’ve known you my whole life, minus these past ten years. Don’t you think I saw plenty of your bed head and drool-covered face during our sleepovers as kids?”

Nathan’s face turned a deep shade of red. Without a word, he grabbed his coffee cup off of the counter and walked over to the door.

“I’ll be out again today,” he said over his shoulder. “See you later.”

Before I could respond, he disappeared up the steps. I heard his bedroom door click shut. A few minutes later, as I was washing my bowl in the sink, I then heard the front door open and close with a bang.

When I glanced over to peer out the window, I saw him climbing hastily into his car without so much as packing a lunch for himself.

Nathan had been acting like this since we caught the neighbors trying to prank us. It felt as though something shifted in him when we accidentally fell asleep together on the couch. I didn’t particularly mind, as, like I said, it was best for us not to get romantically entangled.

However, he had been a slob as of late.

I sighed as I looked around at the kitchen. There were droplets of brown coffee scattered across the counter from when he hastily grabbed his coffee cup. His jacket and shoes were haphazardly thrown by the front door.

In the fridge, there were several food takeout containers with half-eaten food, their bottoms greasy from whatever they contained.

I walked over to the living room next, where the blankets and pillows were thrown about. When he came home at night, he often curled up on the couch to watch a movie, and more than once he fell asleep there. I had to cringe as I noticed a pair of his dirty socks on the floor by the sofa.

Nathan was normally a bit of a neat freak, which was why this sudden change was so jarring. Was it possible that he was just too busy to care, or was it something else?

Maybe cuddling together reminded him of Layla, I thought to myself, and now he’s depressed.

That seemed like the most likely reason for it; and so, I decided to do my best to help out.

I spent the rest of that day cleaning the house from top to bottom. I scrubbed the kitchen and the bathrooms, swept and vacuumed the floors, tidied up the living room, and finally I worked on the laundry.

When Nathan came home later, I was watching a television show and folding laundry on the couch.

“H-Hello?” I heard Nathan call out. He sounded confused, likely because the house was so clean and smelled like lemon-scented cleaning solution.

“In here,” I replied. I heard the sound of Nathan’s footsteps as he approached, and I shot him a grin when he appeared in the living room doorway. “You just caught me finishing up the laundry. I was thinking, do you want to order dinner tonight? I could go for—”

“You’re doing my laundry?” Nathan’s eyes widened slightly.

I nodded slowly. “Yes,” I replied. “I thought you wouldn’t mind the help, so I threw yours in with mine.”

Nathan’s eyes slowly wandered down to my hands. I followed his gaze and realized that one of his pairs of boxers was in my hands. A soft gasp escaped my lips as he swiftly closed the gap between us and snatched them away, his face flushed red with embarrassment.

“Don’t touch my stuff,” he said, sounding perturbed.

I cocked my head. “What’s the issue?” I asked. “It’s just laundry. I was doing a load of my own anyway, and—”

“Just… Don’t.” Nathan’s blue-green eyes flashed with annoyance, which took me by surprise. I thought that he would be happy to come home to a clean house and fresh laundry.

“I-I’m sorry,” I said, standing. “I just wanted to help. I don’t see why you’re so embarrassed over some laundry.”

Nathan let out a long, exasperated sigh. “You’re not my wife,” he replied. “The thought of you folding my underwear makes me feel… Weird.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Nathan, we’ve known each other since we were toddlers,” I shot back. “Besides, we live together now. We’re bound to get used to each other’s personal matters eventually. It’s not like I’m sitting here sniffing your underwear.”

As I spoke, Nathan’s face turned an even deeper shade of scarlet red. His eyes searched the room before landing on his laundry basket, and without a word he stormed past me and snatched it up off of the floor.

“Thanks for cleaning,” he said over his shoulder as he headed toward the door, leaving me standing in the middle of the room with a shocked expression on my face. “But I’ll be doing my own laundry from now on.”

I watched as Nathan stormed off with his laundry basket. For a few moments I just stood there, looking at the doorway in shock, before a chuckle finally resounded in my throat. I couldn't help but be at least a little bit amused by my friend’s embarrassment over a pair of boxers.

What a silly reaction, I thought to myself as the image of Nathan’s red, flushed face lingered in my mind.